Are Jews safe?

The Politics Show

The New Statesman

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The "evil" mass shooting at Bondi Beach was the latest in a rising number of antisemitic attacks.

16 people died in the attack in Sydney, Australia. They were Jews who had gathered to celebrate the first night of Chanukah. Among them, a holocaust survivor and a ten-year old girl.

Antisemitic attacks are on the rise. In this year to September, Australia recorded 1654 anti-semitic incidents. That's three times higher than any year before the war in Gaza.

Here in the UK, Jews faced over 1,500 attacks in the first half of 2025, according to data from the Community Security Trust. That’s the second-highest total in the first half of any year on record, and includes the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester in which two people died. In July, a report authored by Lord John Mann & Penny Mordaunt found “widespread failures to address anti-jewish discrimination in NHS, education, arts and policing”.

Oli Dugmore is joined by Rachel Cunliffe and Hannah Barnes to ask: are Jews safe?

READ: The Bondi Beach shooting was an attack on Jews.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The New Statesman.
0:05.5	16 dead, many more injured.
0:08.7	An act of pure evil.
0:11.0	The attack on Jewish congregants at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, has rightly been condemned by the Australian Prime Minister and political community leaders around the world.
0:20.2	But this is the latest in a growing
0:22.3	list of violent attacks against Jews in the last few years. Tonight, Monday, is the second night of
0:28.6	Hanukkah. Over these eight days, Jews around the world will gather to remember how the Maccabees
0:33.1	won the right to practice their Jewish religion freely. As they enter synagogues, many will pass through
0:38.0	security measures which have been put in place in response to the rising threat of anti-Semitism.
0:42.9	I'm Olly Dugmore and I'm joined by Rachel Cunliffe and Hannah Barnes. Hello both.
0:46.2	Hello. Rachel, your sister was in Sydney when the attack happened. What was your reaction to the news?
0:52.6	She's still in Sydney. She's spending a year or two out
0:55.8	there, soaking up some sun. And I woke up on Sunday morning to a message from her on the family
1:01.3	WhatsApp group saying, before you see the news, just so you know, I wasn't there and I'm safe.
1:05.2	And that was how I found out about it. And I had a real sort of sliding doors moment. She had a real sliding
1:12.1	doors moment actually because this is exactly the kind of community event that expat Jews across
1:17.3	the world might go to. Hanukkah is a time to be with family, be with a community. And it was
1:24.7	meant to be a joyful candle lighting celebration.
1:29.7	And I just spent all of yesterday scrolling the news and thinking she could have been there.
1:34.9	And then I found out subsequently that some of my other extended family were actually there at the beach.
1:41.9	Thankfully, they're safe, but they heard the screaming and ran away.
1:45.7	And so this has all just felt very, very close to home. Where was she? If she wasn't there, was it like, oh, I might be here. I'm going to do something with family. Like, where did she end up instead? So we do have extended family in Sydney, and she was with them, and she was doing candle lighting. But I think if that invitation
	...

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